Friends and Parents
by xyzakh
Summary: Things seem to be going normally for the young Naruto Uzumaki, but a change in the times makes for some interesting experiences. Who does he meet? What does he do? What does he learn?


It was yet another troublesome day for Naruto Uzumaki. He returned back to his room following a detention after class. Though to be fair, Naruto did have it coming. He caused a headache for the teachers yet again – this time it was sneaking a strong laxative into the teacher's tea before the class commenced. The teacher thought he was let off easy today, assuming that Naruto was on his best behaviour, but during class, he realised he was wrong as he was practically glued to the toilet seat for the rest of the day. Still though, the teacher was resilient, and at the end of his unpleasant experience, he saw Naruto laughing at him. The teacher had every reason to suspect that it was Naruto and forced him to write on the blackboard 100 times : 'I will respect my teachers and not disrupt class' after class.

And here Naruto was, in his room exhausted by a wound he had inflicted himself. When would this run of bad behaviour end? Although, if Naruto was ever justified with his behaviour, it would start here. Naruto didn't have parents, and up until recently, he was provided with his own room, courtesy of the Third Hokage. Before that he was living in the village's orphanage, but nobody wished to take him in for one reason and one reason alone. It was because of this neglect that Naruto became something of the village idiot, playing pranks on his teachers and elders. Naruto was about to make tea for himself. As he drank, he wondered what it would be like to have friends… and to have parents. This entire process was something Naruto did everyday, only this time he cried. He simply yearned for some attention. In fact, he cried so much that he decided to stay in his room and cry himself to sleep.

Night had fallen, and in the shadows of the night a man was lurking around the village mysteriously. This man somehow slipped past the barrier that would otherwise alert the protection team if an intruder was to pass. He had donned a simple black cloak and a mask with a distinct flame to conceal his entire face except for his right eye. Recently, he had gathered sensitive Intel regarding the status of the nine tailed fox. To people outside the village, it was actually unknown what became of it, except the fact that the Fourth Hokage had stopped it. However, that wasn't the entire story. In fact, the fox was sealed inside Naruto, and this masked man wanted it himself for unknown reasons. Now was probably a better time than ever, since Naruto was still a child, most probably without any ninja skills whatsoever. He had finally found Naruto's room. Naruto was fast asleep; all this man had to do was to transport Naruto using his jutsu, and then transport himself back to his hideout, subsequently completing the task! But it wasn't all straightforward.

The man activated his sharingan, ready to transport the sleeping Naruto. In doing so, he felt some pain in his right eye. Did he overuse the jutsu recently? It would seem not. For this man, there was no such thing as overusing _that_ jutsu. He tried again, feeling that he was being watched; or rather under pressure of being caught he activated the jutsu, transporting himself and Naruto at the same time. A large spiral came from his eye, and sucked the two of them in. Naruto didn't feel anything weird happen, even whilst being sucked in, but the man felt a strange sensation. All of a sudden, Naruto disappeared from his sight. What happened to Naruto? The man had basically failed at this point; he knew what failure was like, and disappeared himself. But he didn't know where he would disappear to. Would he be able to find Naruto again though?

Naruto appeared to be sleeping in his room, very unaware of what had happened the night before. When he woke up, he noticed that his room was somewhat new and clean, almost as though nobody had lived in it! Naruto was rather surprised. Was he in a different room? Either way, Naruto had been meaning to clean his own room for some time, but was happy that it was clean anyway. The cleanliness of it all made him happy, and actually got him into a good mood for class. This time, he would promise himself to at least make an effort to stay out of trouble and even be polite to his elders from time to time. After eating his breakfast, he set off for another day at the academy, very unaware of what was going to happen next.

On the way there, he noticed a different feel to the village. It was still the same village, same surroundings. But then he noticed it. The people were different, and as he was passing by, instead of them giving Naruto hateful looks, whenever they see him, they either smiled or simply said "Good morning!" to which he nervously waved and replied "Uhmm… Hi!" It was a completely new experience for Naruto.

He hadn't even started class but things were going even better than expected. Before stepping into the school building, he took a look at the Hokage monument. It was only then that he truly noticed a difference. The face of the fourth Hokage was missing! He wondered to himself whether the village somehow decided that, because he was dead following a relatively short reign and the fact that his predecessor was reinstated as 'current' Hokage, that they decided to consider his reign somewhat invalid. No. That wasn't it. The fourth Hokage was a village hero. They wouldn't suddenly take his face off the monument and then forget about him. Regardless, Naruto needed some answers. This man was Naruto's role model after all.

Naruto finally arrived to class. He had the feeling that he was late… again, though he insisted that he would try and come early for class. Regardless, the remainder of the class was already there and the first lesson of the day had already commenced. He then noticed something different in the class. Similarly to this own room, the classroom where he usually had lessons was looked somewhat new. But the biggest difference was who was in the class. He barely recognised his classmates; in fact the teacher was different too. Instead of the strict male teacher in his twenties that he expected, it was an attractive female teacher who was in her thirties. He looked around and wondered whether he was even in the right class. He stepped outside to look at the label of the room number that was on the door – "Class 5B" it said. It was certainly the right place. What was going on? The teacher then noticed him, wondering why is students were staring weirdly at little blonde boy.

"Ah, you must be our new student. Don't be shy, please do come in!" she said sweetly. She stood up and guided Naruto towards the center of the class so that he could properly introduce himself. There was an awkward silence. He was still confused as ever, wondering what was going on, but he decided to play along.

Naruto was nervously looking to his 'new' classmates, and then towards his teacher, noticing immediately her ample bosom, her seductive wide hips and large thighs. His heart beat heavily, but then he was woken up from his perverted slumber.

"So, what is your name?" she asked.

"Uhmm… right, yes. My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" He then smiled, and wondered why nobody made a joke about his name.

"Ah, an Uzumaki. So you're from a very respectable clan, I see", she smiled again. Naruto then decided to ask her a question.

"Excuse me miss, I was wondering…" he was slightly nervous to ask, wondering what kind of reaction to get.

"Why isn't the fourth Hokage's face not on Hokage monument?" He finally asked it!

"Ah, Hokage. Well, you see Naruto darling there isn't a fourth Hokage yet. I mean, the third is still in charge and will probably remain in charge for the foreseeable future. I suppose you didn't know that though, since you come from outside the village. But if you ask me, I think the fourth Hokage should be Sakumo Hatake. He's so love-" She let herself get carried away; she seemed to have a soft spot for the White fang of the leaf. But then again, so did most unmarried women.

"Anyways Naruto, please take a seat. You can sit next to Minato. Oh, and Minato, be sure to look after Naruto, and show him around and whatnot" She took a look at the little blonde boy who was sitting in the second top row. He was spaced out for the moment, but was paying attention again after his name was mentioned.

"Yes sensei!" he calmly said. As Naruto made his way to sit next to Minato, the entire class, including the teacher noticed the striking resemblance that Naruto and Minato had with eachother. The spiky blonde hair, the almost peach-like face. They did resemble eachother. Were they related?

"Hi there, Naruto. Nice to meet ya!" Minato said. This was the first time that someone the same age as Naruto had been so friendly.

"Nice… to meet you too!" Naruto said to his fellow blonde, still coming to terms with what was going on. Now that everything was settled, the teacher began class. The first thing that Naruto noticed the teacher write on the board was the date. That explained everything! The year portion of the date was from twenty six years ago! Somehow Naruto concluded that we must have travelled to the past. No wonder everything seemed a little unfamiliar. Though, to be fair, maybe this life wasn't so bad after all. He only needed to look at his teacher (most notably her large, round butt!) to know that he was living the good life, and that the kids were treating him as an equal.

Some time had passed. Naruto was staring at the teacher for all the wrong reasons. When she stopped writing on the board, Naruto quickly scribbled down everything she wrote and explained in one fell swoop. Before he could finish his last sentence, a girl with bright red hair had stepped into the classroom.

"Ah, hello there. Can I help you? You seem somewhat lost." The teacher said.

"Yes miss… I'm the new Exchange student. I was supposed to transfer to this class today. My name is Kushina Uzumaki, y'know!" she said proudly.

"Hmmm… that's strange. I thought we already had a new student. Funnily enough, his name is also Uzumaki…" the class started murmuring amongst themselves, wondering why there were two new students in the class both with the same name. Given the immaturity of some of these students, they asked the same questions like _'Are they brother and sister?'_ and _'Why is her hair so red?'_

The Teacher still didn't know what was going on, but she dismissed any confusion and wanted to continue with the class.

"Well, I don't see why we can't have two exchange students. The more the merrier, that's what I say." Indeed she was right, from Naruto's perspective, having more meat on the bones did make her very attractive.

"Please join us, Kushina and take a seat wherever you wish!" Kushina sat down next to a female member of the class who was sitting at the front. She was a little girl with long black hair that had a bluish tint to it. Her name was Mikoto Nakamura, and she appeared to instantly make friends with Kushina. Naruto and Minato noticed the two girls quickly introducing themselves. Minato was somewhat enamoured by Kushina, and stared at her for the remainder of the class, whilst Naruto was looking at Kushina's new friend. He thought he had seen her before, but then it hit him! Naruto had a friend who looked just like her and had a mother called Mikoto. Yes! That little girl would grow up to become Mikoto Uchiha, and became mother to Naruto's friend and rival, Sasuke. Naruto was simply amazed at this revelation, and wondered what else was in store for him in this world. The teacher then made herself heard.

"Everybody else, make sure to copy down everything I've written, so I can start the next part of this lesson!" Actually, there wasn't going to be 'next part', the bell for recess had rung and all the kids were keen to get a break from lessons.

Naruto had gone outside with Minato. He noticed that Minato had a soccer ball with him and wondered if he could play with Minato.

"Yo, Naruto. Do you like soccer?"

"Of course!" Naruto replied. He smiled so wide, that Minato almost thought it was impossible to smile so wide. But this was the smile of an outcast, who was finally being welcomed into a social activity. For the entire recess, Minato and Naruto played soccer with the other boys. It was the most fun he had in ages.

After the soccer game, recess had ended and the two blonde boys commended eachother for their performances.

"Hey Naruto, you're pretty good! You scored three goals!" Minato said

"You're not too bad yourself, though still… You were to blame for letting in the first goal, and the second… and the third!" Naruto joked. Minato laughed too though, and came up with a somewhat audacious idea.

"Well, I suppose it is difficult playing goalkeeper AND attacker at the same time. Though I intend to come up with a jutsu in which I can teleport to any part of the pitch, saving a goal from happening on one end, and scoring at the other!" They both laughed, and then Naruto asked a question nervously.

"Say… Minato, after class is done today, is it possible for the two of us to play more soccer again. I really had fun, y'know!"

"Well sure you can, Naruto! We'll meet at the park near the lake, you know where that is, right?"

"Of course!" Naruto replied, noticing that Kushina was looking towards them, overhearing their conversation.

"Say, Minato…"

"Yep?!"

"Do you… like Kushina? I mean uhmm… you were staring at her in class earlier and…"

"Well, I suppose I do find her attractive, yes. A little bit like the way you were checking our teacher out!" Minato winked.

"Hey!" Naruto lashed out, revealing a little more of his 'knucklehead' personality. But then they both laughed it off, and back to class they went.

Class had just finished and both of the blonde boys were mentally exhausted. As agreed, both Minato and Naruto went to the park near the lake to play more soccer. There was only the two of them, so naturally the session was going to consist of things like one-on-one penalty shootouts and fun soccer games to sharpen their skills. As expected, they were having a lot of fun and as Naruto went to the makeshift goal to defend Minato's shot, he wondered whether he was going to live in the past forever. He loved it here, but in a way he still didn't belong here. Nevertheless, even though Naruto and Minato had known eachother a few hours, their relationship was already feeling special. Minato scored. Naruto wasn't paying attention but before either blonde boy could say anything, they were interrupted.

"Exhausted from soccer already, blondies?" It was Kushina. Obviously she knew that the 'blondies' would be here, but what business did she have with them? In any case, Minato was delighted to see Naruto's namesake and fellow sew student.

"Hey there Kushina", Minato said going all starry eyed as she walked closer to them. Naruto took her question seriously. He was the type of person who didn't want to show weakness in front of others.

"I'm not exhausted, come on Minato. Let's keep playing!"

"Actually, can I take a few shots against you, Naruto?" Kushina surprisingly asked.

"Uhmm.. Sure Kushina, but don't expect me to go easy on you because you're a girl!"

"I wouldn't expect you to go easy!" Kushina smugly replied.

So it was settled, Minato sat on the floor watching his crush take shots against his new friend. He was amazed not only by her good looks, but also by her soccer skills. She managed to score nine consecutive shots against Naruto, powering each ball out of reach from Naruto. Both of the blondes were impressed. Kushina wanted to take another shot. Could she make it ten in a row? Naruto braced himself for shot number ten. Kushina took several steps back to take this tenth shot. She then took a quick run up and kicked the ball as hard as she could. Naruto was amazed by the power of her shots nine times previously, but he had no time to be amazed. He concentrated, and with a bit of luck, he actually managed to save the shot from going in! Naruto was absolutely delighted, but it came at a slight price. He blocked the shot with his arm, as the ball hit Naruto's arm at lightning speed, it gave him arm a bruise and it hurt Naruto a fair bit. But Naruto was strong enough to cope with it. Kushina, on the other hand wasn't at all bothered that her shot was saved, but she did show concern for Naruto.

"Hey Naruto, are you okay?"

"Yep!" Naruto quickly said, pretending like nothing ever happened.

"Well, if you say so. I had sun though. But I didn't come here to play soccer. There's something I've been meaning to ask you, Naruto."

"Ah man… what could be so important that Kushina has to ask Naruto? I mean… you two have the same bloody name!" Minato was somewhat feeling jealous, whilst at the same time overanalysing things.

"Exactly Minato, Naruto and I have the same name. Which leads me to my question: Are you from the Uzumaki clan, Naruto? I mean… we have the same name, but usually Uzumaki people have red hair, but you are blonde! I was just wondering whether we were related or not, that's all."

"Well, I don't quite know, to be honest. I never knew my parents, you see. They died when I was little. And nobody told me about them either. I'm sure they were awesome people though."

Naruto lay on the floor, alongside Minato laying his head on his hands.

"Even though I never knew my parents, I still have this strong desire to meet them. Nevertheless, I feel as though I'm amongst really good friends. I've never felt this happy. I'd love to hang out with you guys, play football and even treat you guys to Ramen… You like ramen, right?"

"Of course!" Minato and Kushina both said.

"Well, that's very sweet of you, Naruto. I think you're awesome, whether we are related or not. I too hope we can have more good time like this. Though still, you could work on your soccer skills!" Kushina joked, and then winked.

"Naruto's a brilliant football player, and a great friend!" Minato said wholeheartedly.

A few minutes had passed since their beautiful exchange of words; the three of them were all laying down on the grass, with their heads against one another in a triangular star formation.

"So, what do you guys hope for the future?" Naruto asked. It was a random question, but Naruto himself didn't know what he wanted for the future.

"I want to be Hokage", Minato said.

"Hey! That's my dream too!" Kushina said, determined that she wanted to be Hokage instead of Minato. Before Kushina could ask Naruto the same question, a man suddenly appeared. It was _him_.

It was hard to tell what his emotion was at the time, since he was wearing a mask. But he seemed to be angry and to somewhat calm that anger, this man was intent on attacking three innocent children. The three children got up from their triangular slumber as quickly as they could, but the just looking at the man had gotten them too scared to even run away. Minato looked around the place to see if anyone was around to help. Apparently there was nobody.

"So the three of you were telling eachother about your goals, I hear. How pitiful. There is no such thing as hope in this world. Things don't go as expected. I should know, after all… you three have caused me a great deal of trouble already"

"W-what are you talking about?! I've never met you and we are just children. Please don't kill us…" Minato was now behaving like the 'sissy' individual that Kushina had first seen him as. But it wasn't helping the situation. But then Naruto bravely stepped in and imposed any sense of 'authority' that he had.

"Listen pal. I won't stand here and watch as my friends die because of you sick desire to harm innocent people. I simply won't! I won't let my friends die. If you want someone, then take me instead!" Naruto stood in front of his friends taking his arms out to protect them. He showed no fear, and was directly looking into the man's eyes. The man's eyes glowed red. It was the sharingan, and before Naruto knew it, he was under a simple genjutsu cast by the man. Naruto fell to the ground, but his two friends came to his aid.

"You children have had your fun. Let's end thi-" The masked man's ultimate speech was cut short. Within a split second, he was electrocuted by several thousand volts of electricity. Any ordinary man couldn't survive that, but this masked man was still standing. He didn't foresee the attack. In fact, if the lightning that would have killed him, was still coursing through him, making it difficult to control his movements. The masked man was left on his knees. But just who attacked him? His attacker advanced, the children made way for his hero and the hero managed to kick him hard enough in the face to knock him away. In fact, that kick was one of the hardest kicks those children had ever seen. And yes, it was even harder than Kushina's. The kick was so hard that it tore the masked man's mask in half (though not revealing his identity).

"You know, it's cowardly to attack children, you masked fiend. Though I must commend you, nobody until today has managed to survive my white fang jutsu!" White fang jutsu? That was it. This man was the White Fang; it was Sakumo Hatake who had saved these children! He turned round and smiled towards the children. His long silver hair was beautifully flowing against the golden sunset. A sunset that would see the departure of this masked man.

"Hmph, so you're the one known as the White Fang. So the legends are true. You are strong. You have ambition, but so do I. One day, I'll complete my plan."

And with that, a spiral void had opened and the masked man sucked himself into it.

"Is he gone now? Is he?" Minato asked Sakumo.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's gone. When someone messes with the will of fire, they take a beating! You three all have the will of fire burning brightly. I predict that you'll all be fine shinobi in the future. Especially you, little one", he looked at Naruto and pat his head. Sakumo was about to leave, but as soon as he did, Naruto started glowing. So Sakumo stayed a little longer.

"What the… What's happening to me?" Slowly but surely, some parts of his body were glowing viciously bright. Was this the 'Will of fire' that Sakumo was talking about? No. It appeared that the parts glowing brightest ere disappearing into thin air! Naruto was disappearing away quickly. Minato and Kushina both grabbed hold of him affectionately.

"I don't understand… Are you leaving?" Kushina asked, trying to suppress a tear from her eye.

"Yeah, please don't go! We want you to stay!" Minato was also crying a little. Neither of them knew what was going on. Sakumo watched on in amazement whilst Minato and Kushina held Naruto hard, almost until Naruto couldn't breathe.

"Listen guys, I had a blast. Today was the best day of my life, honestly. You two look after eachother. I'll really miss you guys. I hope we can meet in the future." He gave one last smile

"Naruto, we love you-ttebane!" Kushina cried, and with that Naruto's entire body glowed. The light was bright and blinding, and with that, Naruto's entire body dissolved into thin air. Was that the end for Naruto?

"Well, who would have known? Friends are like stars. They come and go, but are always there for you." Sakumo said. He then added:

"Naruto, He was fine young man. I'm sure whoever his parents were, they would have been so proud of him." Indeed Sakumo was right. Naruto's parents were incredibly proud. Minato and Kushina eventually did see him again. It was a beautiful reunion of friends and parents.

Naruto was in his room. It was as messy as ever. He was in his bed but had just woken up despite it not being sunrise yet. He thought to himself, was that all just a dream? But then he realised that his arm ached. Kushina's shot was real, and so was everything else he had experienced. Naruto now knew his true goal. He wanted friends he wanted adults to see him as an equal and, like Minato and Kushina, Naruto too wanted to become Hokage. That experience was probably a snapshot of things to come. He knew now the true meaning of being a leaf shinobi and since then he had never forgot about his goals, hoping one day that he will achieve them…


End file.
